Michigan

Is NCAA Hockey Game On The Way?

A lot of us who love Division I college hockey and video games have been
waiting for the pieces of this puzzle to come together.In
other words, we've been waiting impatiently (maybe some of us have been
waiting patiently) for an NCAA hockey game to be produced by EA Sports
(or someone else).

Admit it, you would love to see a video game
rendering of Ewigleben Ice Arena with the Bulldogs hitting the ice
representing Ferris State University. OK, I am pretty sure it's not just
me who has been waiting for such a video game to be made available.
There is at least one Facebook group pushing
for the game to become a reality.

Obviously, we will not see the
names of the players, but it will hardly matter. Likely, the NCAA
hockey game will have a similarity to the real thing like the NCAA
basketball and football games. That would be fine by me and a lot of
gamers who also appreciate college hockey. I, however, more than likely
will have to upgrade from my Playstation 2. That will be a tough one for
me.

Still, it looks like we are one step closer to just such a
game:

College Hockey, Inc. director Paul Kelly has been hired to
promote college hockey and has been hard at work in that regard. Kelly
seems optimistic that a deal could be struck that would bring Division I
college hockey to a video game console, and perhaps sooner rather than
later.

The details of the story making the college hockey rounds
is here,
and an excerpt is below.

NCAA Basketball and NCAA
Football have their own annual release from EA Sports so why not NCAA
hockey, at least under the NHL umbrella?

"We've actually been
in discussions with EA for a couple of weeks," Kelly began, "and while
we don't have a formal announcement to make at this moment, we are
certainly in discussions with EA Sports and they are very interested in
having a college component to their game. We, the colleges, are very
interested in having that happen and we are just currently in the
process of figuring out what dimensions that aught to take. The answer
to your question though is 'YES' just as there is going to be a CHL
component to the video game, there will be a college hockey component
as well."

Any way you slice it, this is a huge step
forward for Division I college hockey as it seeks to make its mark on a
college athletics scene mostly dominated by football and basketball.

Here
is what a college hockey game would have looked like back in the day of
the old Nintendo Entertainment System (from a video I discovered on
YouTube).